Jim Nottingham
University of the Arts London
Jim is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the University of the Arts London (Ual) Ual consists of 6 world class Colleges of Art & Design, the Colleges include; Camberwell College of Arts, Central St Martins, Chelsea College of Arts, London College of Communications, London College of Fashion and Wimbledon College of Arts. The Colleges currently occupy 18 sites across London. UAL has over twenty thousand full-time students and over twenty-five thousand part-time students.
Jim holds a BA degree from Loughborough University and an MFA from Louisiana State University. Jim is a Charted IT Professional and is a member of the Gartner CIO Academy and the Entrepreneurial University Leadership Programme. Jim has over 30 years of experience of working in Higher Education in many different roles including teaching. Jim is a active member of UCISA, Educause and Eunis.
How can University IT leaders working to enable the structures of digital pedagogy and digital service transformations, provide boundary spanning institutional leadership while at the same not stifle creative and innovative approaches to new technology?
The University IT leader sits at the periphery of the activity of academic staff but has a great deal of influence in how University wide systems can be adapted and utilised by academic staff, students and support staff. It is key that careful consideration of all users within the scale and scope of any IT or digital strategy is genuinely given by those leading the organisation.
It is also clear that strategies need high-speed adoption, clarity and agility to adapt with the times. The session will explore various strategies that have been used at the University of the Arts London to break down barriers, increase participation and discourse while still maintaining the underlying ethos of education, creativity and freedom of expression.
My proposed presentation will explore various strategies that we have used to move from being a traditional and static University IT Department to a University wide function involved in almost all digital based activities across the University. There is an on-going reshaping of the role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and IT Director in Higher Education, it’s no longer the case to be able to manage a complex IT enterprise. I strongly believe that it has become key to understand the University within the wider context of learning and teaching, social, economic and political values.
University IT services have to go where the pedagogy leads, this may well be uncomfortable but it is an essential element of the current pace of change in learning and social practice. Understanding pedagogic principles for a University CIO is an essential as understanding a WAN.
It is vital to move beyond the narrow structures and processes that encumber IT in a University setting and be a key enabler of all digital activities and service transactions across the University. This in turn requires a mind-set change and a new generation of CIO’s who are fully engaged with the primary function of a University and see their role as highly informed across all aspects of the learning organization
